Legendary actress from ‘The Shining’ and ‘Popeye’ dead at 75: ‘Now she’s free’
Shelley Duvall, the famous actress best known for playing opposite Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick’s horror film classic “The Shining” as well as several Robert Altman films, has passed away, according to The Associated Press.
She was 75.
Duvall died in her sleep of complications from diabetes at her home in Blanco, Texas, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“My dear, sweet, wonderful life, partner, and friend left us last night,” Duvall’s longtime partner Dan Gilroy said in a statement, per the AP. “Too much suffering lately, now she’s free. Fly away beautiful Shelley.”
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Duvall began acting soon after she was discovered by legendary filmmaker Altman. She would later appear in several of his films including “Brewster McCloud,” “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” “Thieves Like Us,” “Nashville” and “3 Women.”
In 1980, Duvall appeared as Olive Oyl in Altman’s film adaptation of “Popeye,” starring Robin Williams in the title role. That same year, she played Wendy Torrance, the terrified wife of Jack Nicholson’s unhinged caretaker of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel.
“Duvall, gaunt and gawky, was no conventional Hollywood starlet,” AP reporter Jake Coyle wrote about the actress. “But she had a beguiling frank manner and exuded a singular naturalism. The film critic Pauline Kael called her the “female Buster Keaton.”
Duvall would appear in other popular films like “Time Bandits,” “Frankenweenie,” “Roxanne” and others. She worked with Steven Soderbergh in “The Underneath” and Jane Campion in “The Portrait of a Lady.”
Her voice was further immortalized in Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed 2002 film “Punch Drunk Love,” which featured a remix of the “Popeye” song “He Needs Me,” written by Harry Nilsson (with additional composition by Jon Brion in 2002).
Duvall earned the Cannes Film Festival award for best actress in 1977 for her work in “3 Women,” which also garnered her honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and British Academy Film Awards. She won a Peabody Award in 1984 for her work on “Faerie Tale Theatre.” She received the Texas Film Award from the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2020.
The THR report said Duvall appeared in 2016 on the talk show “Dr. Phil” where she discussed her battle with mental illness. Dr. Phil later on CNN expressed regret for how he handled the interview with Duvall.
Five years after that appearance, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Duvall about her acting career and traumas from it in the piece “Searching for Shelley Duvall: The Reclusive Icon on Fleeing Hollywood and the Scars of Making ‘The Shining’.”
She talked about the countless takes Kubrick required, and she even began crying as she and THR reporter Seth Abramovitch watched a scene from the film together, one featuring a confrontation between Duvall and Nicholson. When asked why she felt emotional, Duvall said, “Because we filmed that for about three weeks…Every day. It was very hard. Jack was so good — so damn scary. I can only imagine how many women go through this kind of thing.”
FILE – In this May 23, 1977, file photo, actress Shelley Duvall is seen in Cannes, France. Duvall, whose wide-eyed, winsome presence was a mainstay in the films of Robert Altman and who co-starred in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” has died. She was 75. (AP Photo/Jean Jacques Levy, File)AP